


Westbound Sign

by Fashion_Victim



Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, F/F, Mild Gore, Violence, Zombie Apocalypse, that’s the violence and gore, they’re fighting zombies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-12
Updated: 2019-03-20
Packaged: 2019-11-15 23:59:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18083477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fashion_Victim/pseuds/Fashion_Victim
Summary: In a post apocalyptic zombie world Chloe and Aubrey run into a bit of trouble while on a scavenging mission, luckily they get some help from a short badass stranger.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve been reading a few Zombies apocalypse/Pitch Perfect stories recently and I really like the concept so I figured I’d give it a shot. Meaning this is inspired by the few other zombie stories that have been/are being written write now. You should definitely check them all out.
> 
> This is my first time writing fan fiction, and the first time I’ve written anything creative since I graduated high school 10 months ago. Don’t flame me too hard cause I know I’m not great at writing. Do let me know if you like it/ hate it/ have any suggestions. I don’t have this story planned out at all, and I’m not sure if I’ll continue but if there’s some interest I’ll probably write at least a second part. 
> 
> The name comes from the Green Day song of the same name.
> 
> I don’t own Pitch Perfect, the song Westbound Sign, or the premium version of Grammerly

Chloe inhaled a slow calming breath, trying to focus on the feeling of the air filling her lungs instead of putrid smell that came with it. The smell of rotting rancid flesh was not something that she could ever get used to, her brain could just never accept that it was the new normal. 

She glanced around the abandoned bar that she and Aubrey were currently scavenging and wondered how long it’d been since a living being had been inside it. 

They had been pleasantly surprised so far in their journey through town, finding that the town had been mostly untouched by other groups looking for treasure in the form of canned goods, medicines, and other simple necessities. When they’d seen the bar Aubrey had cautiously pulled Chloe closer and lead the way towards the front door, hoping they’d be able to find another hidden gun behind the bar like they had a month earlier in a different small town. If they were really lucky this one would actually come with more ammo than what it was loaded with.

The front door had been unlocked, which wasn’t a great sign, but looking around Chloe couldn’t see any signs that the bar had been disturbed besides the two lifeless corpses that looked to have been rotting into the floor for the better part of the last two years. Stepping through the bar she was careful to avoid the bodies while keeping a lookout for any spots where the wooden floor looked compromised or ready to collapse. They’d learned that lesson a few months back after falling through the floor of an old church. They’d been lucky to come out relatively unhurt and even luckier that there hadn’t been any of the undead waiting for them in the basement. Chloe wasn’t going to risk that happening again. Despite being known for her sunny optimism she knew their luck was going to run out eventually.

Aubrey went straight behind the bar, squatting down to dig through the bars lower cabinets. To Chloe’s great surprise there were still half full bottles of alcohol lining the back shelf of the bar slightly obscuring the image of her own reflection in the dusty mirror. She grabbed the nearest bottle, swirling around the contents before placing it in her backpack. Might as well secure some for herself before everyone else got their hands on it.

“Find anything?” She asked Aubrey as she walked over to the still crouching blonde. 

“Nothing useful yet, and no sight of a gun. There has to be one in here somewhere. This entire place looks untouched so why would someone just take the gun and leave,” Aubrey replied with a huff and an unbelieving shake of her head, “Go check to see if there’s anything in the back rooms, okay? If there somehow turns out to be no gun here we might as well make sure we leave with something other than booze. I doubt they have any good wine here.” And with that Aubrey turned back to the cabinets and continued to dig.

Chloe gave a soft sign and carefully walked down the narrow hallway to the door marked ‘employees only’, pausing for a few seconds before turning the knob to check for any noise that could be coming from the other side. When she was satisfied with the silence she was about to twist the doorknob but was cut short by a surprised shout from the main room. Instinctively pulling out her large hunting knife she quickly sprinted the few paces down the hall fearing the worst when she didn’t hear any other sounds from Aubrey.

“Bree, what’s going on? Are you oka...” she started to ask but was stopped by the same sight that had caused the uncharacteristic shout from her best friend. There were no zombies in the bar, but the entire front window and door were blocked by a wall of writhing bodies, pushing and slamming into the glass. It was a good thing the door opened outwards or the hoard would have already been taking over the building.

Chloe had no clue where they’d all come from, the town had been relatively empty besides the occasional zombie being stuck inside a house or other enclosure. She had no time to dwell on this though because she could see the glass of the window already straining from the pressure of the mass of bodies. Turning their heads simultaneously Chloe and Aubrey made eye contact and came to the easy agreement that they had to get out of there now. 

“There has to be a back exit. Did you see an exit sign when you were checking the back?” Aubrey asks while she and Chloe quickly head towards the door Chloe had been previously about to open. 

“I didn’t get the chance to check anything out,” Chloe responds as she finally turns the doorknob taking the first step into the room, only to be quickly pulled back into the hall by a wide-eyed Aubrey. Shocked by the sudden movement Chloe starts to lets out a startled yelp but is silenced when she looks down at the floor in front of her, or in this case the lack of a floor in front of her. There were only about 4 inches of wood floor past the door frame, the rest had become a causality to the increasingly common phenomenon of untreated burst pipes rotting out old wood floors. 

Looking across the uncrossable room Chloe shines a flashlight into the room. The bright beam highlights the stagnant dust that had settled in the air before being swept around the room in a rapid search for what Chloe hopes isn’t the only other exit. Finding its target the light reflects on the red letters of the once lit up ‘exit’ sign over a door on the opposite wall to where the duo stands, causing a crushing sense of dread to fill Chloe’s chest. 

“There has to be another way out,” Aubrey says as she frantically rushes to the three other doors in the hall, revealing a storage closet, a bathroom, and a set of stairs leading into the flooded basement. 

“Shit.” The curse that slips out of Aubrey’s mouth would have shocked Chloe if not for the dire situation that they were now faced with. 

“We’ll have to fight our way out,” Chloe frantically whispers, “there’s no other way Bree.” 

“Okay. Okay.” Aubrey takes a deep breath in and closes her eyes, regaining most of her normal composure. 

“What weapons do we have.” Aubrey says as if making a mental list so she can form a plan, “I’ve got my hunting knife and hatchet. You’ve got your knife and baseball bat. We have a gun, but we only have 3 bullets, and there look to be at least 20 zombies out there.” Taking another calming breath she’s about to continue on with some form of a plan when she’s cut short by the cracking then shattering of the large front window. 

“Let’s let them come in a bit. If they’re more spread out we’ve got a better chance. Kill the ones that get too close but mostly we’ll just have to run for it, push them if you have to just keep moving Chloe. There’s no way we can kill them all.” Aubrey locks eyes with Chloe for a brief moment after her plan is laid out, making sure she’s understood before pulling Chloe in for a brief hug. They break apart and immediately make the quiet trek into the main room. 

As soon as they enter the room everything is thrown into chaos. Every zombie is headed towards them in a matter of seconds. Giving Aubrey no choice but to use their last 3 bullets to take out the 3 closest zombies with precise headshots. Chloe swings her bat into the head of the next closest one, knocking it sideways causing it to stumble to the ground while knocking another zombie to the ground with it. They started out the battle strong but only have the upper hand for a few more short seconds. They were quickly outnumbered again leaving no option but to back up and slowly retreat down the hallway.

They’re pushed all the way back down the hall just a few feet away from their starting positions at the door. Afraid to stop long enough to strike one of the creatures because of the force of the movements of the hoard they have no choice but to keep moving. 

Just as Chloe was being to weigh the option of braving the fall into the flooded basement a loud whistle fills the air causing the zombies to falter in their movements. 

“Hey! You fucking Rot-Heads, get your asses over here and fight someone your own size.” A feminine but strong voice shouts out from the front room. The disturbance is enough to distract the back half of the hoard, leaving only 7 left to chase the duo. 

With the threat cut in half, Chloe and Aubrey were filled with a new sense of control over the situation. Chloe knocked the front zombie to the ground, causing enough of a jam in the movement for Aubrey to slam her hatchet into the top of the next one's skull. Chloe felt the pull of skeletal fingers on one of her ankles and ripped her leg away and then stomped the head of the fallen creature with the full force of her body, caving in its head and stopping its frantic grasps at her ankles. Pulling her large hunting knife out of the sheath attached to her belt she sinks it into the temple of the next zombie, thankful that the narrow hallway is only allowing a couple of zombies to attack at the same time. 

They were able to kill the last four after a couple more minutes, sinking knives into temples with as much force as they can muster. Both were panting and out of breath from the exertion of the task but they only pause for long enough to pull in a few lung fulls of air before rushing into the front room to help whoever had provided the life-saving distraction. The sight they see upon rounding the corner causes them both to freeze in shock. 

There on the bar sat a brown haired girl clad in a well-worn leather jacket, both forearms heavily wrapped in duct tape, grey undershirt, black fading skinny jeans that have been ripped at the knees, and ankle high black combat boots. She had each foot planted on a bar stool, slightly hunched over with her elbows resting on her knees. 

While her physical appearance in itself is imposing, what shocks the other two girls is the machetes the girl has, one in each hand, both dripping in fresh zombie blood from the pile of scattered zombie heads laying on the floor around the bar, disconnected from their bodies but still snarling and biting at the air. 

“Finally, I was beginning to wonder if I needed to come back there and take care of the rest of these fuckers by myself,” The stranger says in a flat emotionless voice, hoping down from the bar top and whipping her machetes off on the shirt of a headless zombie then placing them in her hip holsters, “You guys can put these suckers out of there misery if you want,” she says while pointing at the decapitated heads, “either way just don’t be idiots and let them bite you on the way out.” Finished with her words she starts heading for the front door, giving one of the heads a kick on the way. 

“Wait!” Chloe says in a pleading voice, trying to be mindful not to make too much noise in case there are more undead lurking nearby. When the stranger pauses at the door and turns slightly to look at her she continues. “Thank you so much for your help. We were overpowered until you showed up, you just saved our lives, please let us repay you somehow.” She rushes out the words before Aubrey can object about how they don’t even know this person and shouldn’t trust them. 

“No thanks, I already grabbed a few bottles from the shelf I don’t need anything else from here.” The stranger says with finality before stepping through the frame of the shattered door. 

Chloe ran after her, careful not to step near any of the heads, but she only makes it halfway there before yelling from outside alerts her to the arrivals the rest of her group.

“What were you doing in there!”

“Who are you!”

“Where are Chloe and Aubrey!”

All three questions are shouted in unison, aimed at the brown haired girl, along with the raising of two handguns and a hunting knife. The stranger simply points a thumb back towards the bar then continues walking away. Prompting the other girls to quickly look over at the bar in time to see their disheveled but unharmed friends exit the building. 

“Guys, put your weapons down. She just saved both our lives from a hoard in there.” Chloe reprimands the other girls before rushing to grab the stranger before she could run away again. “ I’m Chloe, and that’s Aubrey, Stacie, Emily, and Ashley. Please let us replay you somehow, we really appreciate what you did for us in there.” 

She’s holding onto one of the duct-taped sleeve of the girl, finally close enough to notice that she’s actually a few inches taller than the brooding stranger. Her lips curl up into an amused smile, remembering the bold shout about the ‘Rot-Heads picking on someone their own size’ but decides it’s probably best to not tease the girl who just saved her and Aubrey’s lives. 

“I already said no, so if you don’t mind I’ll be leaving now.” She said while wrenching her arm out of the redheads' grip and quickly walking down the street towards a black motorcycle. 

“Please,” Chloe tries one more time to get the stranger to accept some form of thanks. It’s not often that they run into friendly strangers in this world, and she’d honestly feel bad if the unwarranted kindness was brushed off without proper appreciation. 

Letting out a frustrated sigh the shorter girl turns back towards Chloe and concedes with a compromise she hopes the persistent redhead can accept. “ Fine, I accept your thanks and you can repay me buy like passing the good deed on or some shit, okay.” 

Chloe nods her head in agreement before smiling, her sky blue eyes meeting a pair of stormy dark blues, and simply states “Deal.” Shooting the stranger one of the biggest smiles she’s had in a while. She would definitely be able to fulfill her end of that deal, even if Aubrey was usually against helping strangers. 

With the short exchange over the shorter girl walked the rest of her way over to her black motorcycle and got on. Before she could start the engine Chloe realizes there’s one thing she really wants to know about the stranger.

“What’s your name?” She asks, hoping she’ll get an answer before the girl disappears since she’ll probably never get a chance to ask her again. 

With one last sigh, the leather-jacket-clad girl turns her head and states, “Beca.”, before kick starting the bike and quickly driving off away from the group of girls and the redheads’ probing questions. 

Chloe watches the motorcycle disappear down the street and around a corner before letting another wide smile grace her lips as she repeats the name of the mysterious not-so-stranger before turning back towards her friends. 

“Beca.” 

She likes it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to you all for the positive support for the first chapter of this. I tried to sit down and make and out line for this, but then after writing half a chapter I decided to completely change directions and do something else. I’m not sure how I feel about this chapter but I’ve decided to just go ahead and post it anyways before I try to restart it again.

“Where the hell have you been Mitchell?” 

Beca ignores the question thrown at her by Bumper, and instead chooses to walk over to the haphazardly put together fire pit in the middle of the temporary campground so that she can properly clean her blades and make sure they don’t need any sharpening. 

“Well? Did you at least see anymore of those people Luke saw when he was out the other day?” He asks, ignoring how she had ignored his first question, staring at her with a hopeful glint in his eyes. He knows that if Beca saw them that means there must be some sort of camp nearby, you don’t just randomly see people running around these days, multiple sightings usually leads to a decent sized camp. 

“No.” Beca states with her usual straight face, glaring into his eyes for a few drawn out seconds before focusing back on her cleaning. 

She pretends the only reason she lies is because she can tell those girls come from a camp way bigger than they’d ever be able to easily rob and that Bumper would push them into doing it anyways despite her warning. But deep down she knows the lie flows out of her mouth without a second thought because of a pair of sparkling sky blue eyes that looked at her with so much appreciation, those eyes burned with kindness and that smile almost blinded her with its open honesty, the likes of which she hasn’t seen in anyone in a very long time.

Beca doesn’t know how anyone can still smile like that in this hell they live in, but she knows she doesn’t want to be responsible for that smile disappearing forever. 

So she lies to Bumper, and decides to forget the fact that when she saw that hoard of zombies trying to break into that bar she wasn’t think of how the people inside could lead her to the camp her group had spent the last two days looking for and was instead just thinking about how it’d be nice to do something nice for a change. 

She can’t remember the last nice thing she’s done since joining Bumpers group 8 months ago. Sure, she hasn’t stooped as low as most of the others in the group who seem to enjoy participating in cold blooded murder but she’s still killed people who were only trying to kill her to defend what little they had to keep them alive in this world. She’s certainly never gone out of her way to help anyone for anything other than personal gain recently.

Beca has let herself turn into one of the people she use to hate most back when it was just her and Jesse on the road together. She knows he’d be incredibly disappointed in her if he could see what she’s become.

When she’d been invited to join the group after they’d seen her impressive zombie killing skills she’d agreed simply because she had nowhere else to go. Jesse had only died a few weeks earlier and she’d let herself shut down into an even colder indifferent state than normal just so she could push through and survive. She fit right into Bumpers group, and she’d been just going along with them ever since. 

It hadn’t been until recently that she’d been entertaining thoughts about leaving, going west to see how the rest of the country is holding up. Some solitude away from the repetitive scavenger life sounds way overdue, and after the events of earlier today she know she wants to get out away from these guys as soon as the chance arrives. 

She hadn’t noticed Bumper leave her side during her minutes of self reflection, but she figures he’d replied with some sort of curse before going and re-asking the other scouts who’d been out if they were sure they hadn’t seen anything. Once he got his sights on something it was hard to get him to give it up, but that’s exact what Beca decides she’s going to do. If she can make sure the group leaves this area without ransacking Chloe’s community then she’ll be starting off her new journey of maybe redeeming herself a little bit on the right foot. 

*

Four days later, after no new sign of Chloe’s group, Beca can tell that everyone is starting to doubt that they’ll find anything and that most of the guys are ready to move on. She has a short conversation with Donald, Bumper right hand man, and learns that he’s planning to mention the possibility of moving on to Bumper within the next couple days. Beca’s starting to feel pretty antsy about the whole situation, knowing that it’s only been pure luck that no one else has found anything yet, she’s never been this lucky before and knows it’s gonna run out if they don’t leave soon. 

Of course, her miniscule luck doesn’t last past that afternoon when Luke drives back into camp in his Jeep with a wicked grin on his face. 

“I know where they are,” he starts before anyone can ask if he’s found anything, “I ran into a group of girls and they asked me if I was traveling alone, so I said yes, and after talking for a while I guess I gained this redheaded chicks trust enough so she told me that they had a camp a few hours drive north if I ever wanted to come join them.” His announcement is met with high fives and cheers from every member of the group except for Beca. 

All Beca can focus on is the fact that she know exactly which friendly redhead he’s talking about and how she has the sinking feeling that her willingness to trust Luke with such sensitive information has most likely been her fault. Chloe may have seemed open and trusting, but Beca could tell that she wasn’t stupid enough to just go around revealing so much information without prior cause. If Becas guy feeling was right then Chloe had just been trying to fulfill her end of the deal Beca had stupidly made with her, and now her entire community was in danger because of it.

Beca wasn’t sure how she was going to fix this situation, but she already knew she had to try something. If anything happens to Chloe or her friends Beca know she’ll never get rid of the guilt that’s already pooling in her stomach. 

So she does the only thing she can think of doing to try to solve this mess she’s made. 

“I’ll drive ahead and stake the place out. I’ll get a read on how many people they have and what type of valuables they have. Give me a day or two to figure out their guard patterns and look for the weakest link.” She looks all 10 guys in the eyes as she says it, hoping no one finds her sudden outburst suspicious. Usually she isn’t one to jump in and volunteer for a stakeout mission, and she knows that none of them want to wait any longer to just get in there and take whatever they can. Thankfully Bumper sees her sudden outburst as enthusiasm.

“That’s what I’m talking about Mitchell! I haven’t seen you so excited for a stakeout in like for-fucking-ever.” He says with a genuinely excited grin, “You should leave within the next hour so you can get there before it gets dark and start figuring out what their night watch situation is.” He turns to the rest of the group before declaring, “We’ll stay back and check out those signs about a settlement that Dave found today and see if they lead to anything worth taking. Mitchell will meet us all back here in 48 hours and we’ll cement our plans then.” 

Beca doesn’t wait for anymore instructions after that. She heads over to the area of the camp that she’s been keeping her stuff and packs up the few things she has before grabbing a few cans of food from the large rations stockpile they keep in the trunk of one of their SUVs. On her way to her motorcycle she’s stopped by Luke who gives her some more specific directions on how to find the community. He also hands her a rifle and a box of ammo, stating that the he likes to use the scope when staking a place out and that it’s never a bad idea to have an extra weapon. 

She usually feels a bit weighed down hoping on her motorcycle with her two machetes, full backpack, hunting knife on one hip and handgun on the other, but with the added weight and bulk of the rifle she feels a little ridiculous. Despite that she’s thankful for the extra weapon, well aware that what she’s about to do will most likely end in disaster and that she’ll need all the protection she can get once Bumper finds out what she’s done. 

With that final thought, and some rough slaps on the back of encouragement from a few of the guys, she takes off up the road north to face the mess that she’s somehow inadvertently created for herself. All she can hope is that she can fix it before it gets her killed. 

*

She drives for 3 and a half hours until she reaches the gas station Luke had told her would mark where she should start taking a few more turns. Beca pulls her motorcycle around the back and tucks it in between some bushes to keep it hidden while she’s gone. Taking a good look around at her surroundings she realizes she’s on the edge of a medium-sized town, and that if Luke’s directions are correct the community she’s looking for is hidden within the seemly abandoned neighborhoods. 

The sun is just beginning to set as she starts her careful walk through town, casting long shadows as Beca carefully makes her was down street after street, avoiding the potential of running into zombies and people alike. By the time she sees the large metal walls that surround what she guesses is a small neighborhood the whole town is bathed in darkness and she guesses she’d been walking for just over an hour. 

Beca stops as soon as she sees the wall from a block away, wanting to get a better view of the it so she can plan out how to approach. She opens the fence to a backyard of a house, hoping to be able to climb on top of its roof to get a good view, pausing before she enters to listen for any sounds in the dark backyard. She hears a soft groan followed by some shuffling footsteps, revealing a zombie who Beca guesses has been trapped back here since it turned based on the fact that she sees no signs of gore on it besides the chunk of neck that had obviously been bit off revealing rotting flesh and an exposed windpipe.

As soon as the Zombie notices her it frantically charging at her, desperate for the first meal of its life. Unfortunately for the creature Beca was prepared for the attack, pulling out a machete with he left hand and delivering a solid blow to the zombie already compromised neck. The head rolls to the ground with a thud still rapidly chomping at the air, and the body crumples next to it a second later. Beca re-holsters the machete and pulls out her hunting knife, sinking it into the zombies temple before quickly returning to her original task of finding a way onto the roof. 

She rearranges a trash can to boost herself onto the roof of the screened in back deck then uses the ledges of a window as footholds as she climbs onto the roof. Once safely on the roof she carefully makes her way up the incline to peek over the top. Just as she had hoped it provides a decent view of the front of the wall which looks to be about half a mile long. Using the rifle scope she sees guards stationed along an inner walkway on the wall at four different points with two stationed around what looks to be the the front entrance. 

Trying to decide if just walking up to the front gate in the dark is a good idea, she looks over the guards again to try and gauge how armed and ready to kill they look, but stops short when she recognizes the blonde who she had saved the other day. Beca can’t remember her name but she thinks it starts with an A. 

Hoping that being recognizable will be enough to keep her alive and have the people inside the walls at least listen to her warning, she climbs back down from the roof, leaving the rifle and her hunting knife on the deck roof for safekeeping incase her weapons are confiscated inside the walls.

Exiting the backyard and walking down the street towards the wall she puts her hands above her head as soon as she’s out in the open space in front of the wall where the blonde is standing. When she isn’t immediately noticed she takes a few steps closer trying to make her footsteps as loud a possible to alert the other girl to her presence. This movement is rewarded with a flashlight abruptly shining into her eyes. 

“Who are you and what are you doing here?” The blonde harshly questions, refusing to redirect the flashlights beam to anywhere other than Beca’s eyes. “Wait, you’re that Beca girl. How did you find us? Did you follow us?” The questions don’t stop and Beca isn’t being given time to answer so she butts in before her interrogator can ask anymore.

“There’s a group planning to rob you guys two nights from now.” She hopes he bluntness will translate how serious she is.

“How do you know that? Why should I listen to you?” The questions are accompanied by the lowering of the flashlights beam, allowing Beca to finally get a good look at the scowl that’s being directed at her.

She’s about to bite out a snarky reply about how if she doesn’t listen to her she’d be an idiot, but is thankfully interrupted by one of the other guards jogging towards the blonde.

“Hey! Everything alright down there Aubrey?” A tall brown haired guy who looks to be around Aubrey’s age asks as he gets within a few feet of Aubrey. He glances over at Beca and raises his eyebrows in surprise before directing one of Aubrey’s previous questions at her, this time much friendlier. “Hi, who are you?” He glances back and forth between Beca and Aubrey as he asks, feeling the thick tension in the air between the two. 

Beca suppresses the urge to sigh and roll her eyes, knowing this isn’t the time to be getting annoyed with having to repeat herself since she’s probably have to answer a lot more questions like that before the end of the night. Instead of answering that question she gets right back to the reason for her surprise visit.

“There’s a group of guys that’s planning to come rob your community in two nights.” Her words strike him like a slap and he stares at her with wide eyes before looking at Aubrey with alarm.

“What! We’ve got get everyone together, we’ve got to figure out how to stop them.” He looks like he’s ready to take off behind the wall and start gather people right now, but Aubrey stops him by wrapping a hand around his wrist.

“We don’t even know if she’s telling the truth Sam, She could be trying to trick us.” She warns him before looking back out at Beca and raising a pistol at her. “Why should we trust you?”

“I’m not lying, I’m just trying to help. Like I did back at the bar.” She hopes bringing up the previous time that she’d saved Aubrey and Chloe’s lives would at least get Aubrey to trust her enough to consider that she might be telling the truth, and it seems to have worked.

With a huff Aubrey conseeds, “Fine we’ll let you in and listen to what you have to say, but I’m keeping an eye on you and if I don’t believe you I’m personally kicking you out of here before you can cause any trouble,.” She then beckons Beca to follow her as she walks down the length of the wall towards the gate.

Beca releases a deep breath she didn’t know she had been holding and lets a little relief flood her veins. Hopefully, the rest of this community is a little more willing to listen to her than Aubrey is, or else her haphazard plan to try and help them might end up making things worse for her than she could have imagined. 

All she can do as she walks through the front gate and is stripped of her weapons is hope she didn’t just make another big mistake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, let me know what you think about it.
> 
> The next chapter will probably take a little longer to write since I’ll be busy the rest of the week, but it will be coming.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the comments and support for the last chapter, I greatly appreciate it. 
> 
> Sorry for the delay, I ended up being busier the last few days than I had expected to be, then hit some writers block with one of the scenes. I wrote this in chunks over several days so let me know if it feels disjointed anywhere.

If Aubrey had been pissed about Chloe’s friendly interaction with Beca a few days earlier then she had been absolutely furious when Chloe had befriended the handsome blonde named Luke earlier today. Chloe knows telling him specifics about where their community is located was a stupid thing to do, but she’d been looking for a way to pay back her debt to Beca all week and had yet to come across any other way to do it. So she jumped on the first chance she got, abandoning the caution that usually stopped her from revealing too much to strangers.

She wasn’t surprised when Aubrey had immediately stalked out of their house after they dropped off their scavenging gear, most likely to go take up a guard position on the wall like she usually does when she wants to get away for people. 

Chloe had already started to feel guilty about what she’d done, being so thoroughly ignored by Aubrey was only making it worse. She’d rather the strict blonde go back to yelling at her about it. 

One thing that Chloe has always hated and has grown to hate even more since the end of the normal world, is solitude. With Aubrey out for the rest of the night, and Emily and Stacie out socializing and probably eating dinner at the cafeteria, Chloe is left sitting in their shared living room with a few candles lighting up the slowly darkening house, trying to focus on the words of some sappy romance novel instead of her nagging feelings of guilt and loneliness. She knows she could just go out and join the other girls for the rest of the evening, but doesn’t want to think about the rest of the community and the way she’d put them in danger, even if that danger is completely hypothetical. 

She manages to read for about an hour without getting distracted by her own thoughts when suddenly the front door slams open and Emily clumsily bursts in. 

“You gotta come to the school, someone showed up at the gate and now we’re having an emergency meeting.” She manages to get the words out after a few deep breaths having obviously ran the few blocks from the elementary school where the communities cafeteria and other community spaces were, including the gymnasium that was used for community-wide meetings. 

Chloe was up and running with her without a moment's hesitation, worries and curiosity filling her head. Was it Luke coming to find shelter in their community? Was it a failed attacker? Or was it just a random traveler?

By the time Chloe and Emily made it through the front doors there was a steady stream of people entering with them, most looking around in confusion and fear. It was pretty rare for them to have emergency meets and usually meant something pretty serious had happened, like when scavenging groups had been killed or when a particularly large hoard of zombies was heading towards them. The feeling of group anxiety only fueled Chloe’s personal worries even more.

They made their way into the already crowded gym and quickly maneuvered their way to the edge of the crowd and then up to the front to try and find Stacie and Aubrey and get some answers about what was going on. 

Upon breaking free of the crowd Chloe instantly is looking for Aubrey, knowing that if there was someone trying to get in at the gate Aubrey would have been acting as their personal interrogator since their arrival. She spots Aubrey first, but half a second later her eyes land on a very unhappy looking brunette who was sitting tied to a chair. 

“Beca?” Chloe raises her eyebrows in surprise at both the sudden reappearance of her mystery savior and the state which she is currently in. Beca had been stripped of all her weapons and her leather jacket, leaving her in her grey t-shirt, black jeans and combat boots, the removal of the jacket showing off her toned arms but also her surprising petit frame. 

At the call of her name Beca’s head snaps in Chloe’s direction, they make eye contact of a second but Beca quickly breaks it with an apologetic wince and a slight grimace.

Confused even more by Beca’s reaction, Chloe quickly walks to Aubrey’s side to try and get some answers from her best friend. 

“What’s going on Bree? Why’s Beca here and why is she tied up like that?” Chloe asks Aubrey, causing her to sigh then shake her head, looking like she’s ready to lose her carefully constructed composer for yet another time today. 

“Everything will be explained once everyone else arrives and we start the meeting.” Aubrey said in a faux-calm voice, the one Chloe recognizes as meaning something serious is going on and that arguing with Aubrey is out of the question. 

“Beca here,” she points an accusatory finger at the smaller girl, “has some very interesting information.” Aubrey’s eyes soften just a touch as she looks back at Chloe and whispers, “We’ll talk about all of it more once the meetings over and we figure out what we’re gonna do.” She then shoos Chloe and Emily away to rejoin the crowd.

The two girls walk back to the crowd and take up positions in the very front, wanting to have an unblocked view for when Aubrey would finally start explaining. After a few long minutes Aubrey was joined by William, the elected leader of their community, who started to address the anxious mass of people.

“I’m sorry to have dragged you all out of your homes when I’m sure you were all just getting settled in for the evening, but a very urgent matter has come to our attention and I wanted to inform everyone about it as soon as possible.” He projected his deep voice loud enough to make sure everyone in the gym could hear him, looking at them and trying to make eye contact with as many of his worried citizen as possible.

“What the hell is going on!” A man from inside the crowd yelled, earning exclamations of agreement from the rest of the group.

“This is Beca Mitchell,” he says while pointing down at the girl sittin to his left. “She brought us information claiming that a small but well trained group of scavengers is planning to attack our community and steal as much as they can two nights from now.” William states knowing that getting straight to the point is best before everyone starts to get too agitated with being left in the dark. 

Chloe gasps at the revelation, a million new questions filling her mind. She knows that William and Aubrey would have already questioned Beca to figure out if she was serious or not, meaning her home really was in danger and they needed to start preparing immediately.

“How does she know that?” A middle aged women holding a child no older than 5 years old asks, voice filled with concern. 

William turned towards Beca, prompting here to go ahead and answer that question herself. 

“I know because I’m part of that scavenging group, or well I was until I decided to come warm you guys.” She says it in a loud steady voice like she’d been practicing how to say it since she’d been brought in.

“I don’t like those fu-freaking assholes and have been thinking about leaving for a while, this was as good a time as any.” Beca says, looking a little sheepish when she realizes how many kids are in attendance. Chloe would find it endearing if not for the seriousness of the situation and the implications of Beca’s words. 

The guilt from earlier today reemerges in Chloe’s stomach with full force, and she suddenly needs to know exactly how Beca had found them. She’s about to let the questions burst free from her mouth, but is stopped as William starts speaking again.

“We’re gonna spend the rest of the evening working up a plan for what to do, then we’ll start putting that plan in place tomorrow. For now I’ll have to ask you all to head home and try to settle down for a good night's rest. I just wanted to let everyone know as soon as possible so that we can all be on the same page in the morning. We’re gonna have a busy day tomorrow.” His voice is commanding but kind, soothing most people’s worries enough for them to leave while conversing among themselves. Only a few people straggle behind to ask William a few more questions and get some more reassurance that they’ll be safe tonight. 

Chloe doesn’t leave, instead she drags Emily by the hand back over to where Aubrey is still standing with Beca. She’s tired of waiting for answers, even though she has a feeling she won’t like what she hears.

“This is my fault, isn’t it.” Chloe decides to just jump to the most pressing question that’s jumping around in her head. She knows it can’t be a coincidence that the day she gives a stranger directions to there community is the same day someone else shows up warning of an attack.

Both Aubrey and Beca are taken aback by the blunt question, both struggling for a few seconds to find the right answer. This struggle for words is all Chloe needs to know that it is indeed her fault, if it wasn’t they wouldn’t be trying to find the right words to break it to her. 

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry Bree. I should have listened to you, I didn’t mean for this to happen.” Chloe feels tears filling her eyes as the words tumble out of her mouth, quickly building up enough to spill out and slide down her cheeks. As quickly as the tears start falling Aubrey is wrapping her in a tight hug, trying to sooth her best friend.

“It’s not technically your fault, we’ve been looking for this place all fucking week. As soon as Luke saw you guys today you were screwed. You just made it all a little easier.” Beca chimes in from behind them, grimacing as the words leave her mouth as if they taste bad on her tongue. 

“Go home Chloe, we’ll talk about this more when I get back.” Aubrey gently pull back from Chloe, holding her an arm's length away as she gives the command in a firm but gentle voice.

“No, you’ve barely answered any of my questions. Why is Beca here if she’s with that group, and why did she save us the other day and not follow us? And what are you planning on doing to her?” Chloe let’s the questions spill out of her mouth, wiping her eyes dry and putting on a serious expression.

“I’m here because, like I said, I don’t like those dick-heads. And I guess I saved you guys cause I’m like trying to do good shit now or something, I dunno really why I did it but I’m glad I did, so yeah uh like karma, maybe. And then I didn’t want my hard work of saving you guys to like go to waste or whatever so I couldn’t just let you get attacked, yeah that’s it.” Beca fumbles around with her words, growing noticeably embarrassed and squirming around in her chair. 

Beca’s rambling responses brings a small smile back to Chloe’s lips, how could someone who is so embarrassed about admitting they wanted to help people be as bad as Aubrey seems to think. Aubrey does not find Beca’s flustered state endearing. 

“She’s tied up cause she openly admits to being a member of a dangerous group that is planning to attack us. We may be taking her warning seriously, but that doesn’t mean we trust her.” Aubrey says as she crosses her arms over her chest, trying to look as authoritative as possible.

“She saved our lives once already, and it sounds like she’s trying to help us again. I don’t think we should keep her tied up like a prisoner.” Chloe shoots back with her own new found authority. 

“I promise I’m not gonna do anything to hurt anyone here, I honestly just wanna help you- uh your community,” Beca makes eye contact with Chloe as she speaks and her cheeks turn an even darker pink than they’d already been. “I get why you’ve got me tied up, and if this is what you need to do to trust me then I’m okay with that, but like am I gonna have to sleep like this?” 

The question of sleep seems to catch Aubrey off guard, as if she hadn’t considered the fact that Beca would be sleeping any time soon. She closes her eyes and scrunches up her eyebrows in thought for a second before answering, “I’ll talk to William and see what he suggests we do, I’ll volunteer for Beca to come to our house for the night so I can keep an eye on her.” With a huff, she straightens out her posture and regains some control over the direction of the conversation.

“Until then we really need to get back to planning on how we’re gonna prepare ourselves tomorrow. Chloe, you can stay if you really feel the need to, but Emily you should head back to the house.” She looks between her two housemates seeming to just now remember about the younger girls presence because of her uncharacteristic silence during the confrontation. 

Chloe knows that pushing for more answers right now would only irritate Aubrey and probably get her kicked out of the meeting, so she decided to accept that she’ll have to wait a few more hours to ask some more. She has a feeling that asking Beca directly without Aubrey being there will probably go a lot smoother, she just hopes that she’ll get to have some time alone with her before the attack happens. With that thought, she settles into what’s bound to be a long night of strategizing, and hopes at least some of her worries will be settled by the morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think about this chapter or the story in general, all feedback is appreciated.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. Let me know if you’d be interested in a second part of this.


End file.
